Tag: training

Sometimes you need to push yourself to stick to a training plan and get through a tough period. Sometimes, however, you need to listen to your body and mind and back off. This is one of those times. I’ve never been a prolific racer but the whole idea of taking part in a race at the moment doesn’t motivate me at all. The discipline of training and then the hassle of race day just to get a medal doesn’t appeal nor does religiously following a training plan.

Maybe I’m a bit jaded from such an intense 6 months last year building up to my Ironman? Whatever it is I’m currently using the no plan training plan. I don’t have a colourful table on my fridge telling me what I’m doing each day, instead I’m just doing what I feel like (or don’t feel like for that matter). I’m still trying to train as a triathlete and do all 3 sports each week I’m just doing so without feeling I HAVE to get the sessions done. It’s really quite refreshing.

Wednesday last week we all sat around the breakfast table feeling very sorry for ourselves. None of us wanted to be out of bed, none of us wanted to be heading out into the dark and cold to work/school/childcare. I had tonsillitis, my wife had a throat infection, our youngest had an ear infection and the older 2 children coughs and colds. I think we lead a healthy life, we get lots of exercise and fresh air, we generally eat well with lots of fresh fruit and veg but this winter has been pretty darn miserable.

In these busy modern lives that we lead it can be hard to stop and rest, I work in finance and being off at month end isn’t really an option. So I ploughed through it and then crashed for 2 days afterwards as my body screamed at me to rest. But rest and listen to our bodies we must, especially if we are endurance athletes who at some point this season want to try and push our bodies. There is no point pushing on with sessions when sick, better to recover properly and quickly.

I don’t like gyms. In fact I might go so far as to say I hate them. If you follow me on Instagram you’ll see photos of sunrises and muddy trails not selfies with a latte as I leave my morning yoga class. In fact I’m not even sure there is anywhere within a 10 mile radius of where I live that I could go to for some pre-work Pilates. But despite all that incorporating some strength training and stretching into your week is very important and a good way to help prevent injury.

Fitting it in isn’t easy, especially if you have to work around a class schedule at your local gym/leisure centre plus normal life commitments. My training budget is limited so I have to make the best use of it that I can which is where YouTube comes in. A quick search for yoga or strength workouts will give you an almost unlimited choice of videos to follow on demand from the comfort of your own home. Personally I think this is a great way to get your strength training done during the week and takes away one more excuse for not doing it.

With that in mind I thought I’d share a few of my favourites that I use all the time, you can also find a strength and conditioning playlist on my YouTube channel here.

Yoga for runners – Ekhart yoga

This is my go to video whenever I feel I need to stretch. At 20 minutes long it’s short and to the point and easy to do once I’ve go the kids to bed in the evening. Plus of course being able to enjoy a Savasana at the end!

Have I mentioned that I did an Ironman? I’ve certainly managed to shoehorn the subject into most social conversations over the past 2 weeks and of course used my race backpack for tri club swim practise. It does feel like it happened in a different life time though and I’m sure if I tried to run a marathon today I’d fail miserably. Can your fitness evaporate in 2 weeks of rest?!

Post race rest

I’ve consciously given myself lots of rest since race day, I’ve focused on refuelling (and yes cake and beer counts as refuelling) and generally giving my body and mind a well deserved break. But as I pass the 2 weeks post race mark I can feel that I’m hitting the danger zone, the one where you start to feel tired and lethargic all the time and can’t quite comprehend that 2 weeks ago you were at peak fitness. If you’re not careful you become a grumpy, irritable and low on motivation. I think my wife would confirm that I’m definitely in that zone!

I can feel myself getting twitchy, inevitable when you complete a goal you’ve worked towards for so long. The post race blues would be another way to describe it, good to give yourself a break but at some point you need a new focus ,whatever that is, rather than going cold turkey. I will always be a runner and love just heading out with no pace or distance goal, but I also know that having some sort of goal is a good thing for me.

My ironman training hit a bit of a bump at the end of March, a couple of weeks where I didn’t hit my training sessions and to be honest lost the motivation to much training at all. Training for something like this requires such commitment and personal investment from both a time and mental perspective that if you don’t get everything right in your week from a non training perspective then it makes it very hard to get the training piece right.

There is another triathlon, even more important than swim/bike/run, that must be in balance if you want to be able to hit the paces and distances that your plan dictates. That triathlon is family/work/training and as I’ve discovered you can only do the last one well if the first two disciplines leave you with the mental and physical energy you need. I’m trying to do 11-12 hours of training a week at the moment and I’ve learnt that as Monday evening ticks around again and I head for my swim session that this triathlon has to line up well if I’m going to get my 3 runs, 3 bikes and 2 swims completed. There is some leeway in the week for moving sessions around but not much and only 1 rest day to play with. Not easy but then neither is an Ironman!

Work

I don’t have a physically demanding job but I do manage people and that can be very mentally draining at times, which is ok if you just want to go for a nice run after work to clear your head but not so much when you need to do a 1 hour turbo session and then get up at 5.20am then next day for a 1 hour run.

Family life

I have 3 small children (2, 4 and 6) so the family aspect of this triathlon can definitely be physically and mentally draining. As any parent knows you can feel utterly exhausted as you collapse into the sofa in the evening once all your children are finally asleep and the house is tidy. My wife and I have a great partnership and know that we both need our time to train (she’s training for a sprint triathlon currently) so we find a way to fit it in but that doesn’t of course mean the quality is there. […]